Life Is Beautiful
by Grace.Bella
Summary: AU. "You're a Slytherin!" "I assure you, I take as much joy in this as you do." Harry/OC, cynical and strong Harry, Weasley and Dumbledore bashing! - (Grace)


Title: Life is beautiful

Summary: AU. "You're a Slytherin!" "I assure you, I take as much joy in this as you do." HarryOC and cynical and strong Harry!

Disclaimer: I own only Rosa-Lee Gainsborough, her children and this yes I got Gainsborough from Final Fantasy 7.

Italics = Letters / Flashback / a person's thoughts

Bold = Shouting / Pasletonngue / another Language

Bold + Italics = Beginning of a flashback / end of a flashback / Spells

Hello Harry Potter, my name is Rosa-Lee.

If you want to know the answers you seek then go alone to the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. Don't trust anyone and if you don't go alone I will not give away anything I know about the truth behind your living conditions and your parents.

Have you ever wondered why nothing was done about your living conditions outside of Hogwarts? The oh so lovely Headmaster knew, after all, he made sure to send the letter to "The Cupboard Under the Stairs". If Dumbledore knew you lived there, why was nothing done to save you from such vile treatment?

Come and find me if you want to know, oh, and please don't show this to the Order of the Phoenix or to any Dumbledore lovers or to the man himself, it could prove rather disastrous.

Harry read through the letter again as he waited outside the haunted girl's bathroom, just reading the neat and elegant handwriting made him both excited and terrified. He had found this in his pocket earlier today after a long day of being bothered by Malfoy and worrying what kind of "adventure" he'd be having in his 3rd year at Hogwarts.

The letter did raise a lot of questions, questions the Boy-Who-Lived never had the heart to ask, he had heard rumours he saw that was started by his so-called friend Ronald Weasley who blabbed about his living conditions.

If Hermione was here she would shout at him for being so reckless, anyone could have written this letter, maybe a supporter of Lord Voldemort who wished to kill him or worse.

But, the letter, he admitted, had gotten to him, how could he trust Hermione, who like Ron could be possibly starting a load of rumours about him? How could he trust the man who left him to the hell of the Dursleys? Granted, others would more than likely have it worse, like Dobby, but it was enough to feel depressed and find it hard to develop decent social skills and be able to have relationships with his peers.

He wasn't abused, simply neglected, either way, this letter opened his eyes and he wanted to meet the person who helped to do that, and to hear any possible information this girl has.

"Hello Mr Potter, we meet at last." Harry turned to greet the girl, but stopped dead in his tracks once he saw what she was wearing; green and black.

"You're a Slytherin!" He spat, glaring daggers at the girl who raised a single delicate eyebrow at him.

"I can assure you, I take as much joy in this as you do."

It had been nearly 3 months since the start of Harry's 3rd year in Hogwarts and many people could see the difference in him.

For one, he walked as a more leisurely yet graceful stride, his movements didn't waste any energy beyond nessicary. His eyes had gained not a cold, but more cynical and calculating shine to them, and in his lessons he questioned everything.

He even hung around a Slytherin, just the one but it was enough to give off to Dumbledore that something was wrong.

Before when he talked to Harry the boy had been practically within his web, not quite ready to defeat Voldemort for the light and the small boy's eye shone with loyalty but now everything had changed. No longer was he the scruffy, scrawny and painfully loyal boy he was, he questioned all the wrong things, he asked why something was done the way it was, why did such and such happen, things don't happen spontaneously and other... bad things.

The man furrowed his brows. The usual twinkle in his eye was gone. Harry had been hanging around that Slytherin girl – Rosa-Lee he believed he was called. She must have had something to do with his change in attitude.

Dumbledore sighed and prepared a letter to Molly Weasley, maybe she could convince Ronald to try and get Harry back on his side again.

Many stared as black, green, red and caramel strode steadily together. Whispers were spread, several gaped and two shared amused looks.

Harry regarded his new "friend" Rosa-Lee Gainsborough, she had caramel blond hair parted at the side so most of her growing fringe hung mostly on the right side of her face. Her bottle green eyes looked up into his emerald green, her eyes shone in intelligence and dark amusement. Rosa-Lee's thick, barely shoulder length hair was pulled back in a green butterfly clip, her hair spiking up and out of the delicate silver and green clip.

Her clothes were neat, tidy and not a single hair was out of place nor was there any wrinkle in her clothing that she did not want to be there.

Rosa-Lee had changed him, for many for the worse, but for him, for the better. His eyes were wide open for the first time, she helped him, somewhat patiently, see the logic and flaw in everything, she took the time to neaten him up and show him how to change himself for the better.

Whilst Harry was more positive than the cynical Slytherin, he could easily point out a load of flaws in a cynical manner. He had never been grateful to a Slytherin before, and if someone told him last year that he'd be friends with a Slytherin he would have laughed and dubbed that person "mad".

Harry chuckled to himself, earning a raised eyebrow from his slightly smaller green and black clad companion. "I was thinking about last year, and how much I've changed since then."

Rosa-Lee, or Rosa as she preferred to be called, merely nodded, she only spoke when nessicary and wasn't much for conversation but she was a good listener, which Harry was grateful for. He was grateful for many things she had done for him.

Flashback

"Have you saved all your letters from Gringots?"

"Letters?"

Rosa looked up at him with an incredulous look at him from her Potions textbook, she had been helping him with Potions homework and understanding the subject itself when she had randomly asked that question.

"Yes, letters, the recordings of the speech a person would rather say to a person face-to-face yet cannot due to distance."

"I know what they are," Harry snapped. "But I never received any letters from Gringots."

Rosa frowned, her caramel eyebrows scrunched up, giving her a rather cute look, or would have been cute if it wasn't for the scar across her right eye. "Yes, Gringots send a letter once a month to give information to you about your account, such as how much you've taken out over the month and whether you're overdue or not etc."

The Slytherin leaned back in her chair. "To hear that you've not received any letters means two things, someone's gotten a hold of your bank account and is trying to keep you from getting too much of the money your parents most likely left or is using what's in your bank account for his/herself."

Harry paled considerably.

"Harry, do you know anyone who might have that information?" Rosa asked, being careful to keep as little of her shock in her voice and expression as possible.

Harry thought it over – and came to a conclusion, he was given his key before and only allowed to take out a small amount of HIS money, and Hagrid, who had taken him at the bank at the time, was under orders from...

"Dumbledore."

End Flashback

She'd helped him realise many things, that was just one, and the Slytherin girl had promised to get some floo powder during the winter holidays from her mama so they could go to Gringots bank to get his bank account out of the hands of Dumbledore.

She had also helped him figure out what possible reasons he could have been using Harry's money for, costs for the Order of the Phoenix, for the school or for personal joys. Either way, it was illegal with it being without Harry's permission.

Another thing Rosa-Lee helped Harry discover was that his, quite frankly, crap spell casting was because of a magical block of his magical core right inside his soul. Usually it was taken off by the Headmaster as soon as the students entered the school so they could properly harness his/her magical power, to keep it on would ensure a powerful student with a large amount of magic inside his/her magical core such as Harry to keep kept at a strong but controllable level.

That was also illegal.

The block on Harry's magical core also acted as a tracking device so Rosa-Lee also promised to help him break it, cause from the type of magical skills Rose's beginner magical analysation skills could find was that Harry was only traceable in the school, hence why he was kept at the Muggle's house, so that Harry would be kept out of "bad" influence.

Or that's the best solution Rosa and Harry could come up with that was logical, still, nothing could be done until the winter break so Harry decided to let him be well, his new self whilst trying to lay low and not cause too much attention.

However, his new self and his new "friend" had brought about a lot of attention, the type of attention neither liked. Rosa suffered a lot of verbal abuse for befriending a "Gryffindor" and Harry of course was considered to be "manipulated" by the "Slytherin bitch".

"Hey Harry, wait up!" Harry didn't stop and Rosa merely rolled her eyes as Ron Weasley tried to get the attention of the newly dubbed "Cynical Gryffindor". The raven haired male sincerely hoped that the red-head would just leave him alone.

Ron, not one to like being ignored, strode over angrily to the Boy-Who-Lived and the "Slytherin bitch" who dared try to take Ron's fame from him. Once he caught up, the red-head pushed the caramel blond into the nearby doorway. "Get away from him Slytherin bitch!"

Rosa, unfortunately, hit the sharp edge of the stone doorway to her Potions class – one she shared with Harry – and the force of the push and her skull meeting the back of her head cut the skin open and luckily for her, only bruised the muscle and bone underneath.

Harry, who saw her being pushed, caught the cynical Slytherin before she fell to the ground from the pain, slight dizziness and lack of balance. His slender arms wrapped around her barely developed 14 year old waist and he held her upright as she clung to his shoulders.

Great, Harry mentally snarled. Now everyone's going to think I'm in love with her. While Harry would admit – to himself – he was getting fond of her, he was only just forming a friendship so he wasn't really interested and, the block on his magical core also made his sexual and romantic desire practically non-existent, hence why he's been considered gay before.

"Rosa, you alright?" Harry murmured as he helped the Slytherin girl stand upright.

"Come on Harry, ignore her and let's go!" The red-head actually took a step back at the icy glare Harry sent him.

"I doubted you were low enough to lay hands on a defenceless person Weasley, but I guess Rosa was right, you really are a spineless coward." Each word cut deep within Ron, and he was further ignored, much to his ire as Harry helped the stumbling Slytherin towards the medical wing.

When Ron got a good look at the back of her head he winced slightly in sympathy, but squashed those feelings, after all, all Slytherins were no good, right? Voldemort was a Slytherin and he was evil, so all Slytherins must be evil!

Convincing himself that he was right, the red-head stuck to his immature and narrow-minded view of his "world" and walked into Potions Class before Snape could give him a detention.

Meanwhile, Harry half dragged his Slytherin friend through the now deserted hallways and through the Castle to the Hospital wing, hopefully the staircase won't decide to change anytime soon.

"I can walk by myself!" Harry merely rolled his eyes at the girl's rather weak protest, she could barely stand without swaying and it was hard to keep holding her upright with just her left arm around his shoulder.

So, deciding to risk his proud Slytherin friend's wrath, he picked her up bridal style, much to her embarrassment. "If you don't put me down in the next five seconds, I'll hex you!" She threatened, and continued to make such threats throughout the journey down the changing stairs and to the Hospital wing, many of the moving paintings snickered at the squabbling teenagers and muttered about "young love".

Rosa finally calmed down when no matter how much she threatened him and smacked him, he wouldn't let her down or listen to her, so she crossed her arms and sulked at having to be carried like some sort of damsel in distress, which she was, which was beside the point.

Harry couldn't help but chuckle as his friend sulked, earning another glare from the blonde.

Once they finally arrived at the hospital wing, Rosa was set into a bed and given a rather nasty tasting medicine which made it as painful as possible for her. Harry glared at Madame Pomfrey who sneered at the Slytherin.

Everyone outcasts the Slytherin just because of Voldemort, it's disgusting, the actions of one man doesn't account for a load of others! Harry mentally hissed before carrying his friend who was giving out quite groans of pain and he set her on one of the benches outside where they could enjoy some privacy, it was cold outside but barely any different from the cold stone hallways of Hogwarts.

"She did that on purpose," Harry finally stated after several minutes of silence which was broken every now and then with a low groan of pain from the girl.

"As I'm sure you're aware Slytherins are not very well liked."

"This goes beyond dislike Rosa!"

"It will not change any time soon nor can we afford it to if we want our goals achieved."

Harry bit his lower lip at her retort, Rosa had her own goals, otherwise she wouldn't have helped him, she made that fully clear to him almost as soon as she gave the information he desired.

It was simple, her father, the current head of her well-known and well-respected family wanted political allies and a chance to gain favours from Harry in the future, in turn, and they would help him get away from the meddling of Dumbledore.

Sometimes Harry had to remind himself that she was merely doing this for her own benefit and not out of desire for friendship or merely out of the goodness of her own heart.

It was finally the winter holidays and whilst everyone was jostling to leave and when the teachers were distracted, the cynical pair made their move.

Pulling their trunks along, the pair ran through the now deserted corridors within the dungeons to find an old fireplace Rose found to use their floo powder in.

"Ok, I'll show you how it's done, remember what I say carefully, understood?"

"Of course."

With a satisfied nod, Rosa walked into the filthy old fire place and grabbed a small amount of the powder from the small jar in her hand, the rest she gave to Harry and, holding the handle of her trunk in one hand and the floo powder in the other, she yelled; "Gainsborough residence!"

Throwing the powder to the floor, she disappeared in a whirl of green fire.

Feeling nervous, Harry followed suit, as if he wanted to be stuck with the manipulative old man known as Dumbledore!

The actual journey was like riding a roller coaster, an inhumanely fast roller coaster and he stumbled when he landed in the new fireplace and fell to his knees, scuffing the previously clean clothes in ash as he took several breathes, trying to calm himself so he didn't throw up and he felt dizzy, extremely dizzy.

"So Harry, welcome to my humble abode."

With the help of his Slytherin friend, Harry slowly stood and took in his surroundings. He was in what looked like a large house. In all honesty, he had expected a large mansion with several House-Elves scurrying around; however the house was rather modest and plain. The walls were white, the carpets fluffy, warm and red with the occasional rug here and there and the occasional painting, which was moving just like the ones in Hogwarts.

However, there was two people in the room watching the two, one in open amusement and the other in slight distaste. The woman looked almost exactly like Rosa with the blonde hair, the same height of 5"2 and the same cute and round shaped face, however the older one was more curvy and slightly overweight and she was openly warm and well, motherly-like.

Harry generally liked her, and only an idiot wouldn't notice that the woman was Rosa's mother, the only difference Rosa's mother had to her daughter was the mother's dark brown eyes.

The man, which Harry guessed to be Rosa's father, had dark brown hair which was oiled and pulled back into a small ponytail, he had the exact same green eyes as Rose which were just as calculating and reserved. He had a generous brow and his skin was fairly dark, he was obviously of Italian decent and only had a touch of grey at the temples, he looked good for his age of 69.

"I take it you are Harry Potter," Rose's father stated rather than inquired, he stood slowly, his tall 6"7 build easily intimidating the Boy-Who-Lived.

"Yes sir," Harry replied.

"Has my daughter informed you of my request?"

"Yes sir."

"Good, for now, take today as a rest, and tomorrow in the late morning, we will begin the removal of your magical block."

"Yes sir, thank you sir."

Harry was merely given a nod in response and the tall man sat back down in his large brown and comfy looking armchair as he went back to his previous activity – reading the newspaper which was talking about Sirius Black, the murderer Rose informed Harry of.

The woman finally spoke; "It's nice to finally meet you Harry dear, ignore my husband, he's a little grouchy today," her husband merely responded with a raised eyebrow. "Come on into the kitchen whilst I make you both a little snack."

Harry, somewhat meekly followed the woman into the kitchen, his meekness earned him an elbow in the side from Rosa, who merely pulled off an innocent look when he sent an accusing glare at her.

From what Harry had learnt from her, Rosa was terrible at showing public affection, she acted cold but once they were in a semi-private place in the school such as the library, she would open up and let her guard down slightly.

But here, in her own home, she let down her walls entirely and she even allowed a small smile to grace her lips, much to Harry's joy.

From what he could see, Rosa had gotten most of her physical attributes from her mother whereas she had several personality attributes from her father. Unlike both of them, she was far more patient than either of them from what he heard and she was also far more curious and cynical than either of them.

Harry couldn't help but wonder; how much was he like his parents?

Fourth Year

It had nearly been a year now, he had lost all his previous friends from Gryffindor and the news of Sirius Black going missing was almost always in the newspapers. When Harry's magical block had been removed last year and he visited Gringots bank, his key was returned and, by following the strict Alistar's instructions (Alistar is Rose's father) he was polite and respectful enough to earn friends among the Goblins who keep the banks and because of that they revealed quite a bit of useful information.

The will his parents left showed that he was not supposed to go to the Durseleys and he was supposed to be in the care of Rosa's parents who were friends of Harry's parents, they were a last resort if Sirius Black, Harry's godfather, was not available.

So with proof of this, Harry had forced Dumbledore into submission and he moved from the Durseley's place to the Gainsborough home. For the first couple of weeks after the removal of the block on his magical core his aura would constantly flare and he would get constantly changing mood swings and the worst... he was constantly horny.

Luckily, his aura was no longer constantly declaring how horny he was when Lilith (Rose's mother) kindly took him to the side and took the time to teach him how to control his aura. After the training Harry finally understood why Rosa could never look at him without turning as red as a tomato.

Also during his stay, he couldn't help but listen in on Rosa when she menstrubated (basically playing with yourself) in the middle of the night when the silencing charms on her parents room flared up. The poor boy could barely sleep without her pleasure induced moans from echoing in his head, and evidence of his sexual frustration could have been found in the mornings. Alistar took Harry aside to explain what was going on with his body, how to keep himself in control and what he should do if he got "wet dreams" in the night.

It was on New Year's Eve that everything between Rosa-Lee Gainsborough and Harry Potter changed. During the celebration where a Rosa's aunt, uncle and younger cousins came over to stay for a small get together both Rosa and Harry were caught under the mistletoe in the hallway.

Flashback

"Just for traditions' sake," Rosa had whispered before she held onto Harry's shoulders and gave Harry his first kiss, and unbeknown to him, the girl had also gained her first kiss that night.

Before the blond could pull away and retreat, Harry held onto her slender hips and pressed a passionate and aggressive kiss on her lips, her soft lips and quiet sighs of pleasure awoke something deep with the once small and timid boy. Growling low in his throat, he pressed the blond Slytherin against the wall and poured every ounce of passion and care into that kiss and, after a while, Rosa broke the kiss.

There was a tense silence as both teenagers caught their breathe, soft yet heavy pants filled the air, muffled cheers and laughter came from the longue down the hall and Rosa sighed before resting her head on his shoulder.

Concerned, Harry wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close as he buried his head into her, for once, unbound hair. The faint scent of her honey and crème shampoo calmed his frazzled nerves, he couldn't help but find this all strange; a manipulative Dumbledore, a dumb... well, dumber than usual Ron, annoying Hermione and a somewhat caring Slytherin...

"Harry," her semi-soft voice brought him out of his spinning thoughts. "Where... where are we going? How far do you want to take this? Are you willing to give up everything to be with a Slytherin?" Her voice went thick near the end from pure emotion, fear, nervousness, care, lust and unknown to him at the time, love.

Harry sighed and gathered up his courage to ask her something he's been meaning to ask for several days now. "Rosa, I... I care a lot for you and I like you a lot so... will you go out with me?"

Rosa chuckled, but Harry couldn't help but feel that his response wasn't quite what Rosa wanted to hear. "Of course I will be your girlfriend Mr Potter."

End Flashback

The news of the Boy-Who-Lived dating a middle-class female Slytherin surprised many and broke the hopeful hearts of several fangirls, after the news of their relationship got out when Harry and Rosa returned to Hogwarts, several teachers tried to subtly change Harry's views back to the "light" but Harry continued and Dumbledore considered "stubborn" and not even peer pressure could stop Harry from refusing to let Rosa out of his grasp.

The Slytherins had practically cast Rosa out and a few remained neutral, but as everyone else in the school had already proven; Harry and Rosa could only depend on each other.

Fifth Year

Thanks to private tutoring in the third year in a desperate attempt from Remus Lupin, Harry had been able to teach Rosa how to cast Expecto Patronum to defend against others. Unsurprisingly Rose had a Cat as her patronus as a sign of her reserved, sly but not evil nature.

Together they had secretly trained in a secret room which only opened up to them when they needed it and not only that, it acted as a private place for more intimate activities. Rosa had refused to do anything more than kissing and a little touching until they were both of legal age.

"Umbridge would do anything to get you in trouble with proof, my lack of virginity and possible pregnancy would only be more trouble than it's worth."

Although Harry couldn't help but agree, he still felt slightly disappointed.

Luckily, when Umbridge finally lost her patience, she cornered them and, unknown to her, Rosa and Harry had cast several microphone-like spells so Dumbledore and the Ministry of Magic could hear and record everything that Umbridge confessed, including how she was working for the dark etc.

Once Umbridge had been arrested Dumbledore had managed to corner Harry and try not so subtly manipulating the Boy-Who-Lived back into his control but no matter what technique he used, Dumbledore was unsuccessful thanks to, unknown to the old wizard, the training of Alistar and Rosa who taught him how to spot manipulative schemes a mile away without offending anyone.

And so Dumbledore eventually left, and the lovers continued to use the secret room where they could meet in private, much to a meddlesome old man's ire.

It was during the sixth year when everything went downhill. All the private training from the Gainsboroughs had done nothing to prepare him for what happened. The school was invaded by the Death Eaters and they killed Dumbledore, the supposedly most powerful man in Hogwarts, Snape betrayed everyone – that didn't surprise Harry although Rose wasn't quite as sure – and they were currently on the run.

Right now, Harry was knelt right in front of his parents' graves with Rosa right behind him, her slender hands on his shoulders.

Both had changed so much over the last two years, Harry had become a lot more logical and cynical, he had more tact, he was also more politically and socially aware than what he used to be. He had grown out his hair so it was now oiled back and held back into a small ponytail much like Alistar.

Rosa had grown a lot taller, now at 5"7, she was only three inches smaller than Harry and she was still as slender and lacked curves (still a B-cup and her hips were slender). Her hair had grown past her shoulder blades and half her hair was pulled back in her signature green and silver butterfly clasp.

"Your parents would be proud," Rosa murmured, unwilling to break the hushed and vulnerable atmosphere.

"You don't know for sure," Harry whispered in response.

"Then take comfort in MY pride in your growth... I love you."

The Boy-Who-Lived smiled.

"Harry!"

His pulse raced as her voice – filled with untamed fear – tore through him as he faced the red-eyed and snake-faced monster known as Lord Voldemort, the dark wizard had finally had enough of hiding and had managed to take Rosea hostage and lure Harry into a trap.

Harry knew it was a trap, only an idiot would think otherwise, but he couldn't leave his girlfriend to the mercy of the Death Eaters and a madman could he?

Now here he was, it had been nearly an entire year since Harry and Rosa had been on the run and he had walked into the dark, cliché cave that Voldemort had used to set up his trap and it was only the madman, Harry and Rosa in the cave, the latter chained to wall with rusty shackles cutting into her wrists and she was thankfully left untouched.

Her wand was broken, her blouse was in ribbons and her cloak discarded from where she had been whipped, obviously tortured for information. When Harry had found her, she was crying and her blood had been freshly spilt, urging the raven haired teen further into rage, if possible.

"This is it Voldemort, no more games, no more war, the stakes is everything." Harry and Voldemort circled each other, the young teen girl's screams didn't distract either wizard, neither could afford to be distracted.

It was over in a matter of seconds, after all, after Harry had beaten Draco back in fourth year for trying to grope his girlfriend so the Elder wand, the most powerful wand in existence, was originally meant for Draco Malfoy who, after being beaten, attached itself to Harry to be it's master and Voldemort was carrying said wand.

When Voldemort shouted the death curse, with Rosa screaming in the background for the raven haired teen to escape and live, the wand, unable to kill it's choosen master, redirected the curse at the one who tried to fire it, right at Voldemort.

Thanks to the Order of the Phoenix, the Horcruxes, objects holding different pieces of Voldemort's soul, had been destroyed and the backlashed curse had done the job of killing the dark lord once and for all.

There was no great prophetic battle that Dumbledore had ranted and raved about in the past, but by a tiny mistake, lack of research and over confidence on Voldemort's part did the battle win in favour of Harry and the "light".

Ten years later...

"Papa! Papa! Guess what? Granpa bought me an owl for Christmas!" Harry beamed down at his blond son, his more reserved daughter, the boy's dark haired twin, merely smiled happily as she opened her present to reveal the basics on Ancient Runes, much to his little bookworm's delight.

Three years after the final battle Harry and Rosa had married and now the Potter family had began anew with the grounds warded so only family members could enter the Potter's home.

Much to everyone's surprise, Rosa was one of those protective and worry-wort type of mothers and Alistar had a soft spot for his grandchildren, a spot so soft he actually let the children climb all over him when they were toddlers, much to Harry's amusement.

To this day, Harry had never been so happy, he had a beautiful wife, wonderful children and great, if not a little weird, in-laws.

Yes, life is beautiful.


End file.
